WoW – More fun together!

Raiding Strategy, Redux

This post is aimed at players in our raid but anyone is welcome to comment on it.

First off, our mission statement. We want to run a ten man progression raid that is able to take down current content. We are not aiming for server firsts, but want to be a serious raid. We raid two nights a week, Friday and Saturday, 7-11 CST, every week.

Attendance and Performance

First and most importantly, the consequences for raid-related behavior are just for our raid. This is not a ‘Guild Raid’. We have neither authority nor desire to impact your standing in guild. If you don’t work out with our raid, or don’t like our raid, you can stop coming and no one from the raid will give you any grief in guild or Vent. We try to play well with the other guild raids but we don’t consider this to be a guild run. The only ‘punishment’ for anything is not getting invited regularly, or at all.

Second, attendance is important but ‘prior notice’ and ‘fair warning’ are even more important. I will have invites out every week early. Please accept or decline as soon as you can. If it’s going to take you to Wednesday to know if you can raid, sign up as tentative, tell me, and then change as soon as you know. Please communicate me if you decline as to why you can’t come; if you are burned out on raiding, I won’t bug you next week. If you just can’t make it this week but still want to be in the consideration let us know as early as possible. Reliability is a factor in deciding who gets invites.

Once you have accepted, I try to set up “confirmed” and “standby” lists before Thursday so you know. If you are standby, please hold your raid lockout open. Otherwise be free to do whatever you like that evening – as long as you’re willing to step out and join us if we need you. Feel free to ask me what “standby” means in your case: I may be able to tell you how likely you are to get in.

On a side note: To be a successful reliable raid that is doing progression we have to have ‘standby’ people. It is important to the raid’s viability. No sports team goes to a game without the minimum number of players and expects to win. Likewise we have to have at least a mental list of those we call on when something happens or a fight needs a different strategy. Who is in the initial invite, who gets confirmed and who is on standby is variable based on what the raid needs most and what has the best chance of success. As we start actually making progression we will do what we can to get ‘alternates’ their shot at various bosses so they can keep gearing up.

Raid time is 7 pm. That means be ready to start pulling trash at 7, with your flasks and food buffs in your bags, not in a heroic, and not asking for a summons. We don’t have any authority to ‘punish’ but we stop putting unreliable people in the initial ‘confirmed’ slot, or will stop inviting them altogether. The raid must go on.

Quitting time is 11 PM server. We plan to rarely pass that. If we have a boss to 1% we might take a vote to try one more time. If we take one you are free to say ‘no’ with zero penalty. The majority of the time we will end as near to 11PM server time as we can. This prevents raider burnout and also helps people keep outside commitments.

Leaving early is frowned on. If you can’t stay the whole time, talk to Analogue about it BEFORE raid time/day. We can make adjustments in some cases but if you drop out early for something that is not an emergency we will take that into consideration the next time we send out invites. The raid must go on.

Raid night is Friday AND Saturday. If you can only make one, be sure to let me know that. You will then have a lower priority for the other raid night that week. If I have to bring someone in to fill a slot on Friday, that slot belongs to them on Saturday if they want it. I don’t want to take advantage of people and get them saved to raids without any hope of finishing. It might take most of Friday to figure something out and it is bad for the success of the raid as a whole to be swapping people in and out too often.

Performance: Gearscore and Recount are tools. We use them. We do not worship them. If you are the top dps but can’t do your interrupts and stand in fire, you are not as good as the guy doing less than you but not standing in bad. Period. Conversely if you are missing gear, we are going to ask that you find a way to fill those slots. A pair of 333 bracers is bad luck at the wrist slot; five pieces of green gear is a sign that you don’t really want to raid. This is a fuzzy one. We take into account the numbers, the harder to quantify skills but also ability and willingness to learn, adapt or overcome. Attitude is weighed in and so is the vague general ‘fit’. Most of a successful raid is how well people work together. We will not bludgeon, threat, or cajole people to try and force them to fit in or follow the plan. We will just stop inviting them and find someone else.

Requirements for Raiding

Deadly Boss Mods. No ifs, ands, or buts

Ventrilio. You don’t have to talk; you do have to listen

Vuhdo, Grid, or Healbot for healers, configured to show relevant debuffs

One of the above or Decursive for mages, spriests, pallies, anyone who can remove bad things or apply good ones

Gear to have at least cheap enchants and gems. We can help you with those; talk to us if you need enhancements. Armor packs are ok for tanks. At least the lower level arcanum and inscription appropriate to your spec. This is very minimal. Further gearing up ‘requirements’ will be based on the need of the fight and will determine who gets confirmed and who doesn’t.

Flasks and buff food. We’ll try to have feasts but at least have a stack of fortune cookies or something. You can use the 60/60 buff food, or the 90/90, your choice. Again, if you need things cooked, talk to Analogue.

Raid Composition

Sometimes, for the good of the raid, we may not be able to take everyone who wants to come. If we have four dks who would really like to come, that is probably not viable. If I have to choose between bringing a third druid healer or a paladin, I will probably bring the paladin. This is not a reflection on anyone. It’s just about getting bosses down.

Sometimes we may ask someone to swap roles or even characters, or step out so we can bring someone else in. This will either be because of some mechanic (we need a knockback, so I have to go boomkin) or we just don’t have the right group composition (nobody with fast interrupts).

These days buffs are fairly homogeneous so it’s unlikely that we’ll have to choose someone just because of a buff they bring. That said, if we have four druids and five plate wearers, we may miss some key ability, or even be running the risk of getting useless drops. It probably won’t affect the raid as much as ranged/melee/tank/heals balance but we may take it under consideration.

Swapping in and out people to tweak a strategy, fix an issue, improve DPS, increase healing, etc. will be done as needed for the good of the raid. We appreciate everyone having a good attitude about it. Please no drama over it. We value good attitudes. To be honest, someone with lower DPS that is willing to step out for the good of the group is probably more likely to keep getting invites compared to someone who has high DPS and a negative or abrasive attitude. LONG TERM success of the raid is as much a factor as week to week success.

In-Raid Behavior

Everyone we invite is a mature adult (well, in some cases precocious teenagers are invited) who is another actual human being. Everyone deserves to be treated properly. Therefore, there is no insulting of other raid members in raid chat or vent. Mild and good natured teasing is ok; when it goes over the line and becomes attacking, that’s not ok. Use good judgment. If we have to warn you about it don’t be surprised if the invites stop coming.

This includes trash talking. Some people love that stuff and can dish it out and take it just fine… but some people don’t. Don’t post your meters to brag or talk smack. If you want to call someone out for something whisper us about it. If you want to brag, do it in some other chat or after the raid. Our goal is the success of the raid as a whole. This requires a supportive environment where people can excel as a team.

Drama and over sensitivity are likewise discouraged. And ‘blow ups’ are right out. If something or someone bothers you, say so. If you have a problem with someone, whisper us about it. If they stepped over the line tell them calmly, or tell us and let us deal with it. To a point… We aren’t mommy. We are here to raid, not to solve your personal frictions. We are not forcing you to raid so don’t force us to deal with your drama.

Vent is to be kept clean. We’re not going to kick you for a slip of the tongue but swearing doesn’t make you a better raider. No sexist, racist, or hateful speech. I don’t care if you are, say, Polish, making “dumb Pollack” jokes is not all right. You can extrapolate from there to whatever minority group or opinion you like.

Vent is to be kept clear. We won’t be total sticklers here either but during pulls, stay off the air. If the tanks miss a swap because you won’t shut up, that’s bad. If the healers don’t hear “Mana Tide down!” and go OOM, that’s bad

Talking about strategy is fine. We love suggestions and insight. But once we have settled on a strategy, that is the plan for that pull. If we wipe, we can discuss it again later. Do not try to execute your own plan while we are expecting something else.

After a fight keep the discussion to problem solving, trouble shooting, and simplify passing along information. Accusations and arguments do not help us get down bosses. Dispassionate discussion of what happened does. If we have to point out something you did wrong or ask you to do something different to tweak a strategy take it like an adult and don’t take it personally. We all make mistakes. Making mistakes does not get people kicked from a raid. Blowing up when called on a mistake might.

If you don’t know, ask. We are willing to explain things and even re-re-explain them. If you are at all unclear on something before a pull please ask. If you don’t understand why we’re doing something, ask; sometimes the mechanics of a fight are complicated and need more than one explanation.

Keep a good attitude. Wipes happen… in raiding they happen a LOT. We all know this and accept this. Complaining someone got us killed, whining about repair or flask costs do not earn sympathy. If you can’t wipe for hours with a cheerful attitude raiding is not for you.

Loot

Currently, we plan on using priority rolls followed by main spec rolls followed by off spec. BUT, that is later, when we are getting several bosses down. For now things will be a straight single roll for main spec if anyone can use it or offspec if no one can.

For BOEs, we’ve been pretty lax at letting people take them for alts and friends if no one in the raid can use them. That may change. We have people that have alts that are likely to be needed for swapping in and out to tweak strategies. Sometimes we might have to designate BOE drops for those characters. We will try to be as fair as possible.

Don’t be a loot pig. If you get three drops in one run (yeah, not likely any time soon) be courteous and see who else can use them. Depending on the needs of the raid we might let you have all three or we might let someone else have something.

Spirit is for healers. Yes, some dps casters can use spirit but healers get dibs. Hit is for caster dps. Healers can roll if the mages don’t want itRoll on gear that is appropriate to your class and role. If you roll on something that does not match we reserve the right to give it to tell you and ignore the roll. If you think we are mistake about it feel free to ask. We do not fly off the handle. Just being it up in a calm sensible fashion. We can admit we are wrong but we don’t respond well to dramatics.

Veto Power: This early in the expansion we have lot of gear needs to make the raid viable. We, the raid leadership, reserve the right to redirect something based on greater need for the good of the viability of the raid. We don’t much because we are really nice people. The example might be to prioritize one person’s ‘off spec’ over another’s based on what the raid might need them to change to. We reserve the right to do this but in practice we almost never do. This might seem vague and annoying but frankly things like DKP drive me nuts. Way too complicated. And loot councils are cumbersome. We will retain full veto power but will listen to input from anyone that wants to say something. Then we will decide. In practice we just let the roll happen and award the loot. If someone has a really bad need for a particular item we might consider using veto power. I don’t expect this to happen much, perhaps not ever. If it does we will discuss it enough that everyone is reasonably happy with the decision. Just don’t confuse such a discussion with a council vote.

You might want to relax your “spirit is for healers” rule for mail/leather pieces. There is literally no PVE caster mail or leather with hit on it in the wowhead database. For cloth and accessories it’s fine to limit them to hit, since hit exists in those slots, but I don’t think it’s fair to penalize non-cloth casters for Blizzard’s itemization.

I feel bad for saying anything on this since it isn’t really my business but you did say we could…

Sad tree is sad. Even knowing that yes, now spirit is better than hit for boomkins… dammit that’s MY gear!
(I raged when the boomkin won a need roll on MY heroic mace. Yes, he needed it too, but spirit, QQ. I’m having a tough time adjusting to this :/)
Saying that… I would (and will) let hybrid classes roll on spirit, despite my pain. However, I’m very tempted to add a rule that healers can roll on +hit if it’s an upgrade… I have memories of ICC when the only OH my disc priest could reasonably have access to had hit, in a guild with a ton of caster DPS…

I have to ask something: is this the version you posted on your site? Did anyone read to the end?😛
(I did, because I like reading rules. But I try to keep mine way shorter, because people have a short attention span…)

I read it to the end! I personally like knowing what’s expected of me- I hate letting anyone down!! Though it makes me want to apologize profusely for last Saturday (and not telling you until Friday that I couldn’t come). So yeah- super sorry about that! I’ll do better ^_^

Last week we were still getting into things. I didn’t have my Saturday invite out anyway! So that was my fault and not yours and I will do better. This list is at least as much for Reversion and me as anyone who raids with us – if you give us your time, you deserve to have us meet certain expectations and “let you know you’re on” and “make sure we are prepared” is bare minimum

We play on Winterhoof, alliance side, US. We’re not actively recruiting but would not be averse to bringing someone in. We are doing really well with healers and melee dps; a bit light on ranged, especially hunters. Troutwort is our guild master – crits.wordpress.com and Repgrind one of our raiders – repgrind.wordpress.com. The guild itself is Crits and Giggles. We’re not officers or anything, just happy players.

One thing I’d like to add, or emphasize since it was sort of covered ….

if you have a problem with anything, be it something in this post, something that’s happened in one of the actual raids, something with the way the raid instance was chosen, something with the way the roster was chosen, how loot was distributed … whatever … please please PLEASE … whisper Analogue or Reversion and talk about it. Don’t go grumble around about whatever it is without taking it to the two in charge and trying to resolve it. More drama is started where there isn’t any, by people who neglect to keep the communication channels open.

By the way, I thought I had said so, but Aly seems to think differently, I’ve been working very hard to move my horde raid to different nights in order to be a regular for you. And am willing to forgo horde raiding if I have a regular slot here.

This isn’t really the place to talk about this, but we have some problems with raid makeup right now. Too melee heavy. We’ve made a move to bring in another druid to the melee rotation because he’s a really awesome tank who also has an awesome cat build. If he can raid with us permanently, we really need him; our tank lineup doesn’t have the depth it needs. But that means we’re at four melee/tanks and three healers already. The current raid mechanics are not friendly to stacking melee; as a healer, I don’t have the tools to keep many people alive near the boss. Efflorescence is worthless.

We’ll talk to you in game. This is not a “you’re benched” post at all. I just figure if you’re looking at the invite list you’re probably scratching your head and going “huh?” so I wanted you to have more information.

Right now your worst slots as far as DPS is your weapon. If you are having trouble getting runs then your best bet is to grind Tol Bard dailies for those two handers. Or get some gold up and get a BS to make you one. I think Cruel has spare orbs so you might sound him out. I may have some truegold I can spare if you come up short on that, but I can’t help with orbs.

Alternately… I cant think of anything except maybe doing some practice/research to tighten your rotation. I don’t know ret pallies at all but almost everyone can squeeze more dps out of the gear they have.

Last week you two ret pallies were the lowest dps so we are probably going to be stuck swapping out again this week.

I would say pick a couple slots, one of which should be your weapon, come up with a plan and a back up plan to upgrade those and then work when you can for the next week to get those upped. For a lot of slots there is more than one way to upgrade them so find one you can swing. Grinding rep is probably easier than waiting on heroics… but you might do both, grind rep WHILE waiting on the que.

That is all the ideas I have. We have to use the over riding ‘success of the raid’ to guide us. I have even been tempted to step out myself if it would up our dps…. Not that that works as a tank😛

[…] Raiding Strategy, Redux – Analogue over at Looking for More has written up her guild’s policies and goals – primarily for her raidgroup, but she’s shared it with the rest of us too. The post covers everything from attendance and performance, raid composition, in raid behaviour and loot. All for a 10 man progression guild. Thought provoking post, and might be useful for guilds in similar positions. […]